Chapter XVI.

Of Purgatory.

Papists have mapped out the other world into four grand divisions. The
lowest is hell, the region of the damned. There are the ever-burning fires;
there are Lutherans, and all other Protestant heretics; and, in fine, there
are all who have died beyond the pale of the Roman Catholic Church, with
the exception of a few heathens, and a few Christian,--whose narrow intellects
scarcely served to distinguish between their right hand and their left,
and who have escaped on the ground of "invincible ignorance."
The next region in order is purgatory, of which we shall have occasion
to speak more fully immediately. Immediately above purgatory is limbus
patrum,where the souls of the saints who died before our Saviour's
time were confined till released by Him, and carried with Him to heaven
at his ascension, when this region was abolished, and heaven substituted
in its room. The last and remaining region is limbus infantum. To
this receptacle the souls of children dying unbaptized are consigned; it
being a settled point among the doctors of the Romish Church, that such
as die unbaptized are excluded from heaven.

It is the lowest save one of these four localities of which we are to
speak--purgatory. It is filled with the same fires, and is the scene of
the same torments, as the region immediately beneath it, but with this
important difference, that those consigned to it remain here only for a
while.[1] It is the doctrine of the
Church of Rome, that no one enters heaven immediately on his departure.
A short purgation amid the fires of purgatory is indispensable in the case
of all, unless perhaps of those who are protected by a very special
and most plenary indulgence. Even the pontiffs themselves, infallible
though they be, must take purgatory in their way, and pass a certain period
amid its fires, before being worthy to appear at those gates at which St.
Peter keeps watch. All who die in mortal sin,--and of all mortal sins,
heresy and the want of money to buy an indulgence are the most mortal,--are
at once consigned to hell. Those who die in a state of grace, with the
remission of the guilt of all their mortal sins, go to purgatory, where
they are purified from the stain of venial sins, and endure the temporary
punishment which remains due for their mortal offences. For it is a doctrine
of the Roman Catholic Church, that even after God has remitted the guilt
and the eternal punishment of sin, a temporary punishment remains due,
which may be borne either in this life or in the next. Without this doctrine
it would scarce be possible to maintain purgatory; and without purgatory,
who would buy indulgences and masses? and without indulgences and masses,
how could the coffers of the Pope be replenished? The sojourn is longer
or shorter in purgatory, according to circumstances, being dependent mainly
upon the amount of satisfaction to be given. But the period may be much
shortened by the efforts made in behalf of the deceased by his friends
on earth; for the Church teaches that souls detained in that state are
helped by the suffrages of the faithful, that is, bythe prayers
and alms offered for them, and principally by the indulgences and masses
purchased for their benefit.[2]

The existence of purgatory is authoritatively taught and most surely
believed among Roman Catholics. The doctrine respecting it decreed by the
Council of Trent, and taught in the catechism of that council, as well
as in all the common catechisms of the Church of Rome, is that which we
have just stated. The Council of Trent[3]
decreed, "that there is a purgatory," and enjoined all bishops
to "diligently endeavour that the wholesome doctrine of purgatory"
be "everywhere taught and preached,"--an injunction which has
been carefully attended to. And so important is the belief of purgatory,
that Bellarmine affirms that its denial can be expiated only amid the flames
of hell. One would naturally expect that Rome would be prepared with very
solid and convincing grounds for a doctrine to which she assigns such prominence,
and which she inculcates upon her people under a penalty so tremendous.
These grounds, such as they are, we shall indicate, and that is all that
our limits permit. The first proof is drawn from the Apocrypha; but as
this is an authority that possesses no weight with Protestants, we shall
not occupy space with it, but pass on to the second, which is drawn from
Scripture, and which is made to support the chief weight of the doctrine,--with
what justice the reader will judge. The following is the passage in which
Papists unmistakeably discover purgatory:--"Whosoever speaketh against
the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither
in the world to come."[4] Here,
says the Papist, our Lord speaks of a sin that shall not be forgiven in
the world to come; which implies that there are sins that shall be forgiven
in the world to come. But sins cannot be forgiven in heaven, nor will they
be forgiven in hell; therefore there must be a third place where sins are
forgiven, which is purgatory. The answer which the Rev. Mr. Nolan has given
to this is much to the point, and is all that such an argument deserves.
"Let me suppose," says he, "a person committed a most enormous
offence against the laws of this country, and that the Lord Lieutenant
said, it shall not be forgiven, neither in this country nor in England;
would any one be so irrational as to argue that the Lord Lieutenant meant
to insinuate from this mode of expression that there was a middle place
where the crime might be forgiven?"[5]
That our Lord meant simply to indicate the unpardonable character of the
sin against the Holy Ghost, and not to teach the doctrine of purgatory,
is incontrovertible, from the parallel passage in Luke, where it is said,
"Whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of Man it shall be forgiven
him; but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost, it shall not
be forgiven."[6] Other passages
have been adduced, which yield, if possible, a still more doubtful support
to purgatory, and on which it were a waste of time here to dwell. The practice
of the fathers, some of whom prayed for the dead, has been pled in argument,
as if the unwarrantable customs of men lapsing into superstition could
support a doctrine still more gross and superstitious. And, still farther
to fortify an opinion which stands in need of all the aid it can obtain
from every quarter, and finds all too little, the vision of Perpetua, a
young lady of twenty-two, has been employed to silence those who refuse
on this head to listen to the fathers. But if there be indeed a purgatory,
and if the belief of it be so indispensable, that all are damned who doubt
it, as Papists teach, why was it not clearly revealed? and why is the argument
in its favour nought but a miserable patch-work of perverted texts, visions
of young ladies, and the dotard practices of men whose Christianity had
become emasculated by a nascent superstition? We can trace a purgatory
nowhere but in the writings of the pagan philosophers and poets. The great
father of poetry makes some not very obscure allusions to such a place:
Plato believed in a middle state: it formed one of the compartments of
Virgil's Elysium; and there souls were purified by their own sufferings
and the sacrifices of their friends on earth, before entering the habitation
of joy. From this source did the Roman Catholic Church borrow her purgatory.

But we have a sure word of prophecy. The world beyond the grave has
been made known to us, so far as we are able to receive it, by One who
knew it better than either popes or fathers, because He came from it. When
he lifts the veil, we discover only two classes and two abodes. And while
we meet with nothing in the New Testament that countenances the doctrine
of purgatory we meet with much that expressly contradicts and confutes
it. All the statements of the Word of God respecting the nature of sin,
and the death and satisfaction of Christ, are condemnatory of purgatory,
and conclusively establish that there neither is nor can be any such place.
The Scripture authorizes no such distinction as Papists make between venial
and mortal sins. It teaches that all sin is mortal, and, unless blotted
out by the blood of Christ, will issue in the sinner's eternal ruin. It
teaches, that after death there is neither change of character nor of state;
that God does not sell his grace, but bestows it freely; that we are not
redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold; that no man can redeem
his brother, whether by prayers or by offerings; that the law of God demands
of every man, every moment of his being, the highest obedience of which
his nature and his faculties are capable, and that since the foundation
of the world a single work of supererogation has never been performed by
any of the sons of men; and that therefore the source whence this imaginary
fund of merit is supplied has no existence, and is, like the fund itself,
a delusion and a fable; it teaches, in fine, that God pardons men only
on the footing of the satisfaction of his Son, which is complete and sufficient,
and needs not to be supplemented by works of human merit; and that when
he pardons, he pardons all sin, and forever.

But the grand criterion by which Rome tests all her doctrines is not
their truth, nor their bearing on man's benefit and God's glory, but their
value in money. How much will they bring? is the first question which she
puts. And it must be confessed, that in purgatory she has found a rare
device for replenishing her coffers, of which she has not failed to make
the very most. We need go no farther than Ireland as an instance. For a
poor man, when he dies, a private mass is offered, for which the priest
is paid from two-and-sixpence to ten shillings. For rich men there is a
HIGH or chanted mass. In this instance, a number of priests assemble, and
each receives from seven-and-sixpence to a pound. At the end of the month
after the death, mass is again celebrated. The same number of priests again
assemble, and receive payment over again.[7]
Anniversary or annual masses are also appointed for the rich, when the
same routine is gone through, and the same expenses are incurred. There
are, moreover, in almost every parish in Ireland, purgatorial societies.
The person becomes a member on the payment of a certain sum, and the subscription
of a penny a-week; and the funds thus raised are given to the priest, to
be laid out for the deliverance of souls from purgatory. There is, besides,
ALL SOUL'S DAY, which falls on the 2d of November, on which an extraordinary
collection is taken up from all Catholics for the same purpose.[8]
In short, there is no end of the expedients and pretences which purgatory
furnishes to an avaricious priesthood for extorting money. Popery, says
the author of Kirwan's Letters, meets men "at the cradle, and dogs
them to the grave, and beyond it, with its demands for money."[9]
The writer was told in Belgium, by an intelligent English Protestant, who
had resided many years in that country, that it is rare indeed for a man
of substance to die without leaving from thirty to fifty pounds to be laid
out in masses for his soul. No sooner is the fact known, than the priests
of the district flock to the dead man's house, as do rooks to carrion,
and, while a centime of the sum remains, live there, singing masses, and
all the while feasting like ghouls.

Another of the innumerable frauds connected with purgatory is the doctrine
of intention. By this is meant that the priest offers his mass according
to the intention of the person paying. The price varies, according to the
circumstances of the person, from half-a-crown to five shillings. These
intentions, in many instances, are never discharged. Mr. Nolan mentions
the case of the Rev. Mr. Curran, parish priest of Killuchan, in the county
of Westmeath, an intimate acquaintance of his own, who at his death bequeathed
to the Rev. Dr. Cantwell of Mullingar, three hundred pounds, to be expended
on masses (at two-and-sixpence each) for such intentions as he (Mr. Curran)
had neglected to discharge. It thus appears that Mr. Curran died owing
twenty four hundred masses, most of them, doubtless, for souls in purgatory.[10]
"The frauds," says Dr. Murray of New York, addressing Bishop
Hughes, "which your Church has practised on the world by her relics
and indulgences are enormous. If practised by the merchants of New York
in their commercial transactions, they would send every man of them to
state-prison."[11] "In Roman
Catholic countries," says Principal Cunningham "and in Ireland
among the rest, the priests make the people believe that by the sacrifice
of the mass, that is, by their offering up to God the body and blood of
Christ, they can cure barrenness, heal the diseases of cattle, and prevent
mildew in grain; and much money is every year spent in procuring masses
to effect these and similar purposes. Men who obtain money in such a way,
and upon such pretences (and this is a main source of the income of popish
priests), should be regarded and treated as common swindlers."[12]

[1] For a succinct and graphic account of the various
torments with which Papists have filled purgatory, see Edgar's Variations
of Popery, pp. 452-460. [Back]

[7] Both occasions, Mr. Nolan informs us, are concluded
with a sumptuous dinner, consisting of flesh, and fowl, and of every delicacy,
which is washed down with enormous potations of wine and whisky. Half the
priests of a district often contrive to live on these dinners. (Nolan's
Pamphlet, p. 46.) [Back]